Despite the most recent efforts to improve the understanding of Arctic biodiversity trends and issues, information is currently insufficient, and available only in a piecemeal fashion and on an irregular basis7

. Indeed, the Arctic

Biodiversity Trends 2010 report notes: “Significant difficulties were encountered in preparing this report because most countries do not have internal long-term biodiversity monitoring programs. Where such programs do exist, the data collected is not consistent across the circumpolar region.”

Although efforts to monitor Arctic species exist, the lack of coordination, long-term commitment, integration and involvement of local people has resulted in weak linkages between monitoring and decision-making2

. The

ongoing work of the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Programme is another important initiative to improve data on key components of Arctic ecosystems. Numerous research results from the IPY 2007–2008 have been, or will be, published and new initiatives such as the Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON) and the Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment’s (PAME) examination of Arctic legal instruments are being developed.

The Arctic is viewed as a barometer that is highly responsive to global processes. However, the effects are not unidirectional: change in the Arctic might also trigger changes in globally-important processes relating to ocean circulation and weather systems. Recent Arctic climate science indicates that climate change in the Arctic is already affecting the rest of the world through a number of feedbacks – namely atmospheric circulation; ocean circulation; ice sheets and sea-level rise; marine and land carbon cycle; and methane hydrate feedbacks8

. In other words, the Arctic is a

component of tightly-linked global biophysical, geopolitical, and socio-economic systems. The blurring of the line between the far north and the rest of the planet is a critical development that carries with it a range of important new considerations. Increasingly, there are concerns that climate change could produce impacts in the Arctic that overwhelm existing governance systems and adaptive capacity, not only in the Arctic, but in other regions of the globe.

LIMITATIONS AND STRENGTHS OF ENVIRONMENTAL AGREEMENTS 23 I

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